Promise
by pierrotfool
Summary: Luneth returns to Altar Cave and makes a promise again. (Post-game drabble.)


**A/N:** _This was really just for practice, haha. I wrote it a few months ago as a warm-up, I hope you enjoy!_

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Luneth wakes, lupine and famished. He was in Altar Cave again, in Ur, the genesis, and he grins sheepishly at the sentiment. He had intended to visit the crystal within the cave but ended up getting lost in its labyrinthine arrangement. Because he lacked the company and directional sense of the austere Ingus. Luneth had chosen the alternative surrender and had stopped to rest. He would have felt thankful about the lack of monsters, but he misses the garrulous battles that he, Ingus, Refia. and Arc encountered during their quest. These days, less gil was passed through his hands and it seemed almost strange that his dough was reduced to its usual amount before he'd become a Warrior of Light. It all had concluded three years ago, yet, everything was almost anachronistic in the sense that it felt…more like he and his friends' feat had occurred three centuries ago, for the townspeople of Ur had immortalized their story in whatever their quills could scribe upon.

"It's been awhile I guess," he remarks, no, affirms, with a wry grin and pushes his body off the Altar Cave floor. "It's me, Luneth!"

His gloved hands begin brushing by the walls again and he heads towards the familiar canals. He grinned when the cave began to hum the crystal's vibes growing stronger and more evident with each step forwards. It beckons its Warrior, and Luneth, like a chocobo to gysahl greens, is enchanted.

He steps into its chamber and is glad that he remembers the cavern preceding it enough to even be able to navigate thus far without Ingus's help, not that he'd like to think about Ingus. These days, he tries not to think about Ingus and Refia especially, despite that Arc is usually nearby. Instead, he tries to focus on his own prowess although he's conscious that he thinks about much more. There are things that Luneth doesn't like to admit aloud, and all that are close to him know better than to press. The sky-blue crystal comes into view and Luneth's lips thin when he sees it. The pulsing grows stronger, and Luneth shivers when blue light floods the chamber in full-bloom, and he winces a little before the light dims again after having reached the acme of its illumination.

**_Warrior of Light, you have returned…_**

Luneth laughs and gives a small nod, pleased that the crystal remembers him. He seats himself on the stairs leading up to the magnificent stone and tilts his head so that his chin rests between the crevices of his knees and his silvery bangs veils his features.

**_Thank you. You have done well, Warrior of Light, may the Light show you the way into the future…_**

He wonders about that, and he wonders aloud.

"Is that it for me then? I won't be needed in the future." he whispers into his knees, and he picks himself off the ground again. He knows it's best if he isn't called again to fight, but he almost misses the fight, the party, and the _adventure. _His violet gaze is hollow now, and all he can see is the things he can't shakes his head, and remembers that it had to be done, and that there was no longer a reason for Ingus and Refia to be around, because the job was done, complete, and a party was thusly no longer needed.

He reaffirms this fact with a jerkish nod of his head and the balling up of his fists. He waits, hoping for a sign of agreement from the crystal, or disagreement for the matter, but the crystal doesn't answer. Its light fades into nothing again, and Luneth is left in the dust of his own thoughts. He frankly didn't expect much anyway, and he makes his way around the magnificent stone and to the portal behind it.

He smiles wistfully at the crystal once he's within the portal, glad that he'd been able to make one last connection with the stone at all. Truthfully, he'd wanted to visit Altar Cave again ever since he'd returned to Ur, but the beginning only seemed to remind him of the end, and as the rune-symbols of the portal began to light, Luneth hears it, the voice of the crystal, though he can't be sure.

It sounds like the crystal, grandmotherly and dear, until it diverges into three different voices, each the precise pitch of each of his three friends.

**_Well, this is it, I guess! But it's not 'it' it, because…because you need to promise, Luneth! Promise that you'll visit Kazus. I wish I could've said it to you before I had to board the airship, but I…I don't believe in goodbyes, after all, I ran away from home, and look where I'm headed…! So it's a promise, right?_**

**_I…have been glad to know you, Luneth. You are a worthy ally, and perhaps the best I'll ever have in my blessed lifetime. The crystals have been good to us, and I, too, hope that they will one day reunite the four of us again. Eternity is merely a mythos, but camaraderie is forever. You must promise me, Luneth, that we will meet again._**

**_L-Luneth! Look at us! We're heroes! We did it! We did it Luneth! We fulfilled it! Our promise to the crystals! _**

And he sees all the things he didn't want to see, and wants to cry again. Refia's red hair pressed against the feathers of her chocobo as she sang in resonance to the wind's harmonics, Ingus's smirk when he bested a stronger foe, and Arc's shout of triumph when the party had felled a monster they never thought could be beaten, which, to Arc, was the majority of the monsters. He could see their silhouettes in the crystal's shadow, and he knows that they would forever be there, even though they physically weren't. He feels warm again, though the prickling wetness of his face provides stark contrast.

He blinks away the lump in his throat, and finds himself outside Altar Cave, soles full of dust and mind full of matter. With a small shiver, he croaks, "It's a promise," and smiles brighter than the shine of the four crystals combined.


End file.
